Musings

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Performance Review

For many years I gave performance reviews for middle managers. My technique was to give the person a blank form and tell them them to be honest and rate themselves. Also, I would be filling out a form on them and we would be comparing and justifying in a few days. Invariably, the two forms were nearly identical. This takes honesty on both sides. Of course, people who worked for me received many verbal, mini-reviews over the course of the year which makes the reducing to writing very easy. My review from the YMCA was given this last week. It was a pleasing and appreciative review. I received six "Excellent" and six "Good Solid Performer" of the twelve items that were graded. There were no comments in the space "Needs To Improve." All-in-all a most satisfying review. As a manager at Interlock and at FCI I never got a performance review. Working for a president and a vice-president that were basically ignorant of good managerial practices caused them to be fearful of giving reviews. Mostly, they did not know what I did to keep the company healthy. I hope all who read this will be working for a company that gives reviews from a person who is skilled in giving them.

7 Comments:

  • congrats on a great review.

    By Blogger cheryl, at 8:27 AM  

  • Yes, congrats! I have had reviews several times since I started working at Ingles, and I have never gotten a below average or disappointing review. I have gotten comments on how to improve, like communicating better with the customers, but other than that, nothing bad at all. Most of the time these evaluations came with a raise (25 or 50 cents is typical for a yearly evaluation). The last time I had a "review," the manager simply gave me the raise and didn't fill anything out. How do I know it was a good review though??? Well, it was a big fat raise...haha

    By Blogger Sean M., at 10:24 AM  

  • I wish! At my last review I think my boss had "exceeds expectations" on everything and "meets expections" on "leadership." When I questioned him on it he had no answer except to say "well, I had to mark you down for something." Gee thanks.

    By Blogger EZ Travel, at 9:45 AM  

  • I have never had a bad review. But recently when a spiteful boss tried to say bad things about me, I was able to pull out my reviews from years back and show the untruths.

    Moral of the story, save your reviews as you would your taxes, you may need them in the future.

    By Blogger Adrienne, at 8:57 AM  

  • Congratulations on those who receive the great reviews. Adrienne is correct, save them for future use. Organizations change, bosses change and you change jobs. It is an interview enhancement when you can show a great review to a prospective bass.

    By Blogger Marcel, at 12:52 PM  

  • The most useful review process I ever experienced was in a management training course I took at the Boeing Leadership Center. Before the course you had to ask 9 people to fill out your performance review, 5 subordinates, 3 peers and your boss. Except for the boss you were not told which reviewer said what. I learned much about how others viewed my management style, leadership and team player ability. I learned my strengths (fair, energetic team player) and my weaknesses (poor listener, domineering). I took away some useful critisisms that I worked on for a year then asked the same 9 people to do it all again. I did better but still needed work.

    By Blogger John Beauregard, at 5:27 PM  

  • "Poor listener and domineering," that describes many top managers. These traits were also evident with Hitler, Stalin, Napoleon and the manager of our local McDonalds.

    By Blogger Marcel, at 7:40 PM  

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